An important issue for participants in the retail marketplace for computer-related devices is brand recognition and development of brand value. In many situations, products developed by a manufacturer are marketed and sold by other entities in the downstream sales channel as their own products. The branding of a product to accommodate the commercial interests of different participants in the sales channel presents logistical difficulties.
By way of example, in the field of mobile devices, such as handheld computing devices, a single manufacturing company may produce a mobile device for sale through a number of sales channels such as, for example, a variety of wireless telecommunications providers. These providers wish to have the products they sell customized to reflect their brand graphics and nomenclature.
With respect to the hardware, the manufacturing company typically produces as many variations of the hardware as there are sales channels so as to accommodate the need to have customized branding on the hardware. There may be other customizations to the hardware that are specific to a sales channel other than the branding.
In the case of computer peripheral products, the product includes both the peripheral device itself, which is made up of the device hardware and any software operating upon the hardware, and associated utility software for installation and operation upon a computer or workstation to which the computer peripheral is to be attached. The associated utility software may not vary for different sales channels aside from the customized branding desired by the sales channel. Sales channel participants often require that their specific branding and nomenclature be reflected in both the peripheral device itself and in the utility software, so that the user interface on the computer or workstation reflects the specific participant brand.
The manufacturing company in this situation is faced with the expense and difficulty of creating, storing, and managing a number of different versions of the utility software in order to provide customized branding for the different sales channels. This leads to problems, including logistical difficulties in ensuring that the correct utility software is packaged with the correct customized peripheral device.
It would be advantageous to accommodate the desire for customized branding without the need to create, store, and distribute customized versions of the utility software.